By P. Vijian
CHENNAI (NNN-Bernama) -- Residents of the Beemapalli district in the south Indian state of Kerala recently found themselves embroiled in a different kind of 'soap' opera.
The petrified residents in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram sounded the alarm bell when they discovered their bath soaps embedded with electronic chips.
Whether they have been watching too many tele-serials was another matter, but they feared the chip could be a bomb or a device to film them in the nude!
The residents sought police help to get to the bottom (pardon the pun) of the matter.
According to the local media, a police probe revealed it was nothing more than a motion sensor-based soap distributed by a foreign pharmaceutical firm, via a local non-governmental organisation, to survey sanitation habits among consumers.
"There is nothing alarming or mysterious (about the chip in the soap). It is just like any other marketing strategy of MNCs (multinational companies).
"The police special branch decided to collect and verify the details from the research agency," city Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham told a local daily today.
The pharmaceutical firm had apparently distributed soap bars implanted with a special chip and residents were promised Rs400 (RM27) if they returned the used soap after a few days.
According to the police, the researchers would download data from the chip, using a card reader, to study the sanitation pattern.
Nevertheless, following the bad press which the soap had received, the British firm yesterday called off the survey. ---NNN-BERNAMA
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